The Great Escape

DELLA

I pat myself down and realize they’ve taken some of my knives. The ones strapped to my thighs and tucked into my boots are missing. But the one hidden in my bra is still there. Thank God!

All right, one knife. I have to escape and fight off an angel with just one knife. Sounds simple enough. Not.

I take a deep breath and retreat into my mind. The mental itch leads me to a small office where Raziel is lounging, feet propped up on the table, humming a familiar tune. What a fucking lunatic. He’s just sitting there, calm as can be, while he believes his son is forcing himself on me. He needs to die. Like, yesterday.

I return to my mental center and think of my guys. I watch as they reach a junction between two hallways, looking around in confusion.

“Well? Which way is she?” Micha asks, looking at Gavin.

Gavin looks lost. Maybe he can’t feel the pull anymore. I touch one of the mental strands and see Kade clutch his chest.

“~Come catch me, my punisher~,” I whisper to the strand.

“Della!” he gasps, eyes wide. I slide my finger toward my center. His head snaps to the left. “She’s down here!” he says, and I watch them run after him. My heart swells. They’re coming for me.

Now, I have an angel to kill. I take a deep breath and I’m back in the boiler room. Sliding out from between the tanks, I grip my knife. Fortune favors the prepared. Too bad I only have one knife.

I sneak out of the room and find myself in a slate-gray hallway lined with what looks like graduation class pictures. I don’t know where I’m going! ~Keep calm, Della.~ Left or right? It’s a coin toss. Left!

I turn and sneak down the hall, freezing at the sound of a door opening behind me. Shit.

“Well, well. What do we have here?” Raziel’s voice echoes. “I take it Caleb is done with you then?”

~Don’t piss him off, Della, don’t piss him off.~ “Yeah, his hospitality knows no bounds,” I retort. ~What the fuck did I just say, Della?!~

“You know, I might like you if you weren’t an abomination,” he replies calmly, though his eyes flash and his aura boils with rage.

“Why am I an abomination? Why do you feel like I have to die?” I ask. Hopefully I’ll get an answer. It really has been bothering me, and it has a second purpose of stalling.

“Celestials shouldn’t mingle with common demons. It is beneath them.” He sniffs.

“So, what? Stay with your own kind? Is that it?” I ask, struggling for an answer that might make some semblance of sense.

“Angels are the true consorts to celestials. It is what we were made for. And he left me!” Oh! There it is. “He sullied himself with a filthy lust demon. He could have had me!”

Oh, Dad, what did you do? Maybe they ~can~ talk this out. I don’t want to kill someone Death cares for.

“Dad!” I roar to the ceiling, hoping he can hear me.

My shoulder bursts with pain. Raziel fucking stabbed me! I look down to see my own knife sticking out from between my arm and my chest. Blood is seeping down my body, soaking my shirt. This asshole stabbed me with my own knife! What a jerk!

“Why am I wasting my breath talking to you?” Raziel seethes as I try to push the pain aside, but then he sticks a matching knife in my other side. I can’t stop the scream that escapes my throat. More blood soaks my chest as I slide down the wall to the floor.

“Dad?” I whimper as I see rage-filled golden eyes appear behind Raziel’s snarling figure.

“DELLA!” my dad cries as he throws Raziel out of the way. His hands press on my shoulders. “Stay with me, sweet girl. Stay with me,” he pleads.

“Baby, it’s fine. Let her go,” Raziel pleads with my dad.

My father freezes at those words. “What?” he grinds out between clenched teeth.

“It’s okay. I took care of her for you. You can come back to me now.” Raziel smiles.

“Raziel. You stabbed my daughter. The one I hid away to keep safe. The one I have failed far too many times already. The only being I truly care about other than my wife,” Death snarls. “You tried to kill my baby girl.”

I see a flash of fear streak across Raziel’s face as my vision starts to blur.

“Baby, no,” Raziel pleads. “I—it’s not like that. I just wanted you back. They don’t deserve you. They don’t know you like I do. They—” his rant is cut short by my dad’s bloody hand clenching around his throat.

“Be silent!” His command resonates with a power that shakes the earth. Death tosses him to the ground again like a wad of paper he’s done with. Like a piece of trash.

Raziel gets up once more, but instead of trying to reason with my dad, he aims his rage at me. A kick hits me solidly in my right shoulder, making me scream out in pain.

I hear fingers snap followed by a heavy thud, and then I see the golden eyes of my father again. Am I going to die? Is he going to take me away now? Distantly I feel tears falling down my cheeks. I’ve gained so much love in such a short amount of time, and it’s all about to be ripped away. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

“It’s okay, my sweet baby girl. I have you,” my father says, trying to comfort me.

I’m fading into unconsciousness, and I swear I hear my guys coming for me. I can’t be that lucky, though, can I?

Then the world is enveloped in darkness and my pain finally disappears.